(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multimedia contents converting apparatus and method suitable, for example, for use in the conversion of multimedia contents (or content) available in a terminal such as a personal computer (PC) using a broadband line so that the multimedia contents are audible and visible in a portable terminal using a portable terminal communication line, and further to a multimedia contents conversion program and a computer-readable storage medium storing a multimedia contents conversion program.
(2) Description of the Related Art
So far, as a means of editing multimedia contents, for example, there has been known a technique in which, for the purpose of editing in units of segments in which text media and motion picture media (video media) are associated with each other, in a state where the association between the text media and the motion picture (moving picture) media is placed under control, the descriptions (descriptive text) about image scenes constituting a digest picture are connected through the use of appropriate connection representations according to the contexts of the image scenes to automatically produce the descriptions about the picture contents (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-275058).
In addition, as the means of associating a plurality of media with each other, for example, there are the techniques disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. HEI 5-233719 and HEI 11-175092.
Meanwhile, in the recent years, for constructing a presentation through the use of the spatiotemporal (space-time) combinations of one or more media, there has been given multimedia contents produced with a language such as SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) which enables the description of the information on media playing sequence control or media playing synchronization control.
The multimedia contents produced with such a language has principally been provided as PC-oriented contents capable of using a broadband line which enables the transmission/reception of a large-capacity (wide band) data at a high communication speed of approximately several Mbps.
On the other hand, presently, the communication line for portable terminals such as portable telephones can provide the transmission/reception of only the small-capacity (narrow band) data at a low communication speed of approximately several-hundreds Kbps and, hence, for viewing the PC-oriented multimedia contents through a portable terminal, there is a need to convert them into multimedia contents with a format or data capacity according to the communication band and capability of a portable terminal.
For example, as a format of the portable-telephone-oriented multimedia contents, there has been known a file format (3GPP MP4) according to the 3GPP TS26.234 V.5.1.0 standard made by carrying out the restraint and expansion on the MPEG-4 File Format (MP4) according to the ISO/IEC14496-1 standard. This file format is made to display/play video (motion picture) media, audio media and text media in one rendering region (display region).
On the other hand, in most cases, the PC-oriented multimedia contents are made through the use of a file format of displaying/playing the motion picture media, audio media and text media in a plurality of rendering regions.
For this reason, there is a need to convert the PC-oriented multimedia contents, file-formatted to display/play the motion picture media, audio media and text media in a plurality of rendering regions, into the portable-terminal-oriented multimedia contents formatted to display/play motion picture media, audio media and text media in one rending area.
Moreover, for the conversion of the PC-oriented multimedia contents into the portable-terminal-oriented multimedia contents, there is a need to carrying out the conversion below a predetermined data capacity for reducing the data capacity as much as possible in order to avoid an increase in communication time or in communication rate.
For example, a possible conversion of the PC-oriented multimedia contents into the portable-terminal-oriented multimedia contents is as follows.
First, of the media constituting the multimedia contents, on the motion picture media occupying a large portion of the capacity, in addition to a reduced conversion of frame rate, bit rate, resolution and others, a content-summarized conversion is made, such as intensively editing only the images of high-light scenes.
Then, in a state where the association between the text media and the motion picture media is placed under control, the editing is made such that the text media and other media are associated with the edited motion picture media in units of segments in which the text media and the motion picture media are associated with each other.
However, in order to reduce the data capacity as much as possible, there is a case in which, as shown in FIG. 15, a portion of the motion picture media is cut in unit smaller than the segment in which the text media and the motion picture media are associated with each other.
In this case, since the association between the text media and the motion picture media to be cut in the unit smaller than the segment is not placed under control, the corresponding text media cannot be automatically associated with the cutting site of the motion picture media.
In addition, since the PC and the portable terminal differ in screen size from each other, for example, the PC-oriented multimedia contents are produced to the size of the PC screen to appear on a screen with a predetermined size, and the portable-terminal-oriented multimedia contents are produced to the size of a screen of the portable terminal to appear on a screen with a size smaller than the predetermined size.
For this reason, in the case of the conversion of the PC-oriented multimedia contents into the portable-terminal-oriented multimedia contents, a particularly important point is that the text media is surely displayed to be readable without impairing the contents of the text media including the semantic contents.